Hilton Garden Inn Boston Brookline — Hotel in Brookline

WORST EXPERIENCE OF BREAKFAST EVER. My first time of giving a hotel 1 star. TL;DR: The breakfast included package is a scam. The continental breakfast there in Punch Bowl is even worse than free breakfast in other lower-tier hotels (for example Hampton Inn).

Here is the story (if you have time): OK, we paid $55 more for a breakfast included package because I thought that the package would include pancakes (pancakes and waffles are often included in a breakfast included package of other HGIs) when I booked. When we were at Punch Bowl for breakfast, I was told that we need a coupon (not given to us when we checked-in), and the coupon only includes a continental breakfast per person; that is, $18*2 = 36, so okay we pay $19 more just for continental breakfasts. For a pancake we still needed to pay extra $6. (The lady who worked there was nice -- she tried to find a way to bring us a pancake, even though we still need to pay.) THAT'S $25 IN TOTAL MORE. NO WAY TO GET IT BACK, EVEN THOUGH I CALLED THE CUSTOMER SERVICE. (I am a Hilton silver and I booked direct via Hilton Honors App. But the customer service only told me that Punch Bowl is operated by a 3rd party.) What made me even more angry is that the man who was a lead there (I guess he is a manager) only said something like "oh, that's our regulation, so there's nothing we can do, you can only have continental breakfast with the coupon, no matter how much you spent on the breakfast included package", all these made us feel mistreated. Let's going into what were included in the continental breakfast of Punch Bowl -- almost EVERYTHING IS COLD (I regretted it so much when I saw a previous review on this. If I saw the review prior to booking I won't book the breakfast included package and got scammed.) cold bacon, cold scrambled eggs, even no ketchup. AND THE CHOICES WERE VERY LIMITED. No sausage, no hash brown -- I really don't know how they can charge $18 for such a continental breakfast?? At other HGIs, $18 includes waffles, pancakes, made-to-order omelets and a lot of hot things: hot bacon, hot scrambled eggs, hot sausage, etc. I really don't understand how they can charge $18 for such a quality.

To do justice, the hotel itself is quite nice (good room as always in a HGI, and great view if your room is at a high level). People who work there are generally nice and helpful (thanks to ladies at front desk who helped us with early check-in). Another problem might be that the water in the pool was kind of cloudy -- I was looking forward to swimming there, but eventually I gave up because of the turbid, cloudy water.

Conclusion: We will absolutely skip a breakfast at Punch Bowl, if there is any chance of us booking HGI Boston Brookline (for the beautiful city view at higher floors)...

Loved my room. It was beautiful. Great view. Could've been cleaner but not terrible, floors a little dirty, that's all. Beds comfortable. I asked prior for a packNplay, they said it'd be in my room when i checked in, it wasnt. I had to call & ask 3x for the packNplay to be delivered to my room, then when it finally was hours later, about 30m later, someone came to bring a 2nd one. We waited 2hrs to check in because we were a little early and even though you're a hilton honors member, it doesnt matter, you wait, which is fine since we were early but sitting in the lobby with a screaming baby wasnt fun. Theres no extra linens in the room like most hotels so i had to call the front desk again for sheets for the packNplay which took another 2hrs, which was whatever but everytime i called they legit said OK and hung up on me. Small pool, heated, but nice. Beautiful balcony but they were hosting a camp party of a bunch of teenagers so you couldnt even use it with the 50 teenagers out there. Not a big deal. The food at punch bowl is not great, overpriced (we ordered raw littlenecks and they were full of shells) the staff seem so understaffed and miserable there. Hotel itself is beautiful, great comfortable stay BUT the staff, meh. They do not like dealing with the public & its made very clear. Ive stood at hotels that greeted me everytime i came in or out, were kind on the phone & wanted to accommodate the guest. These people are not happy to deal with you, and they dont even try to fake it. Unfortunately there isnt much in walking distance to eat or shop at. There's the punchbowl restaurant thats attached, but we already went over that. The large windows are sound proof which is great because its a high traffic area. There is a gas station nearby we were able to walk to and get drinks from, but crossing all those busy streets was uncomfortable and that gas station smelled so bad like urine, everything was filthy & old (i think its a citgo) i wouldnt recommend buying anything from there. Theres a mini store at the front desk area, super over priced, few drinks, few snacks, some laundry needs & quick medicine but I'd recommend...

Very disappointed. I called earlier in the week prior to our Friday check in and requested a crib for my 3 month old. I was told my request was put in. When I arrived on Friday I was told at check in that the crib was in the room. When I went up to my room there was no crib there.. We then went downstairs to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant and the service was very slow. My friends meals all arrived before my chicken salad - not sure why none took so long, no communication. After dinner we went back up to the room hoping to see the crib, again it wasn’t there. At that point I called the front desk for an update. A man answered and said he would look into it and call me back. Very shortly after he called back and had an immediate attitude with me and said they didn’t have any cribs available. I got very upset and explained how I was promised one earlier in the week AND when I checked in. He then told me I could go downstairs and talk to the manager. I said that I had a 3 month old in my arms falling asleep and wasn’t able to do that and he needed to figure it out as I was promised. He then hung up on me. I could not believe it. I called again and thankfully a woman who has was extremely nice calmed me down and said she was in the process of trying to get me a crib from her sister hotel. Thankfully she was able to get me one because I would not feel comfortable putting my 3 month old in bed with me. I still can’t get over how rude the man was to me. I have worked in customer service before and I would never allow my employees to treat customers like he did. I really wanted to like this hotel because it was convenient to attend the Red Sox game and it had a pool for my 7 year old to enjoy but this really upset me and then there was no apology or follow up. Needless to say I will not...